Trout Fishing in America

BORN: Ezra: San Antonio, Texas Keith: Birmingham Alabama

RESIDES: Northwest AR

PLAYING SINCE: We've been playing together since 1976

"I think we're all creative people and I think there's different ways to express that creativity... in child-rearing, in living with people, we see creativity all the time."

Bio

Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet started playing music and writing songs together in 1976 as part of a band called St. Elmo’s Fire. As early as 1977, Keith and Ezra were playing as a duo. The duo was called Trout Fishing in America. The name came from a book written by Richard Brautigan. Keith is a big Richard Brautigan fan. Ezra was doing a lot of fishing at the time and it seemed like a good and obscure name to use when we weren’t playing with St. Elmo’s Fire.
When St. Elmo’s Fire broke up in 1979, we decided to continue Trout Fishing in America as a full time endeavor. We did a lot of cover material and made a good living playing music. We also did shows for children. Since we didn’t know any children’s songs, we played the music that we knew and loved. We’d play the Beatles, Blues and folk music. Playing the same music for children that we performed in nightclubs gave us a different perspective on music for kids. We never played down to them as an audience and they enjoyed it. Keith went back to college to take astronomy courses and Ezra bought a sailboat. Even then, we still wrote songs and included them in our shows.
In 1992 Trout Fishing in America moved from Houston TX to Northwest AR . By that time, we were touring nationally and writing more songs. Something about that move to Arkansas seemed to accelerate our songwriting.
As of 2013, Trout Fishing in America has received four Grammy nominations for best musical album for children. We’re currently 0 for 4! Our shows these days cover a lot of ground. We play for adults and children at festivals, performing arts centers, house concerts, as well as giving songwriting workshops across the country. Being able to make a life playing music for generations is a pretty amazing and humbling accomplishment. Sometimes we’re asked if we ever get tired of the road.NO! is the answer. We love traveling and performing still.

Music

Over the years, when things aren’t going so well, you sometimes
notice the same person keeps showing up to help you out. This song is a thank you. It is also an acknowledgment that the world is really getting strange!

Over the years, when things aren’t going so well, you sometimes
notice the same person keeps showing up to help you out. This song is a thank you. It is also an acknowledgment that the world is really getting strange!

There was a painting on the bathroom wall in a hotel near the Boston airport. A boy, a girl, a boat on a string. Had to be written. The music was provided by our friend J.T. Huff, guitar player with an awesome band called the Outliers.

Keith started writing this song in 1976, but couldn’t get anywhere with it, until NOW! Sometimes you need the wheel, even if you don’t know where you’re going. With the illusion of control, it’ll seem like your idea when you get there.

This is a sad and lovely song by B.W. Stevenson. Always been one of
our favorites. Keith remembers: “I can still see Ezra and B.W., face
to face, playing guitars backstage in Beaumont, TX, 1976 at Lamar
University.”
Producer: Ezra Idlet • Cover Art and Graphic Design: Susan Lindsay Photography: Don

On an amazing day in Nashville, Trout Fishing in America got together with the Kruger Brothers and recorded a few tunes. None of these tunes were ever released. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed recording them.